The present invention relates to a seat locking device and a stowable vehicle seat and particularly to a seat locking device and a stowable vehicle seat that locks with the vehicle body floor side during stowing.
A stowable vehicle seat is known, along with an associated technique, that has a rear end portion of a seat cushion constituting a vehicle seat that is supported on the front side of a containing recess portion (stowing recess portion) formed in a vehicle body floor rotatably in the front and rear directions, where the vehicle seat is rotated rearward while a seat back is folded down onto the seat cushion to be stowable in the containing recess portion is known.
That is, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-082698 (“the '698 Patent Document”), rotating shafts disposed at both right and left sides of the rear end portion of the seat cushion are pivotally supported by brackets disposed at both edge portions on the right and left on the front side of the containing recess portion, and the rear end portion of the seat cushion is rotatably configured in the front-and-rear direction so that the seat is containable in the containing recess portion.
According to the technique described in the '698 Patent Document, since the vehicle seat side contained in the containing recess portion and the vehicle body floor side are not locked to each other, there is a fear that the seat will make noise by rattling when driving the vehicle.
Also, in a stowable vehicle seat in which a coil spring for urging in a direction to install a seat cushion (a returning rotating direction) is attached to the rotating shaft of the seat cushion and the brackets in order to reduce an installation operation load (a returning operation load) to pull the seat up from the stowed state for installation, it is necessary to adjust an urging force within a range so that the seat is not sprung up, and thus, a further reduction in the returning operation load has been difficult.